SEALBoy

October 22, 2009 at 4:29pm

Just a handy tip I thought I might share.

As you probably know, Windows 7 includes a useful taskbar preview
feature where, if you hover over an open program's taskbar icon, a
preview pops up from where you can switch to or close the program. By
default you have to hover over the icon for a little time (400
milliseconds) for the taskbar preview to pop up.

I found this slightly annoying since I wanted it to pop up instantly.
Turns out, you can change the time delay in the registry. Here is how:

Start Menu -> Run -> regedit

In regedit, click your way to HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Control Panel -> Mouse.

Double-click on MouseHoverTime, and set the value to whatever you want.
The number is in milliseconds so keep that in mind. Click OK, exit the
registry, and log off then back on (alternatively, you can restart).
That's it!

Enjoy.

PLEASE READ:
The MouseHoverTime value does not apply exclusively to Taskbar
Previews. It will also affect other Windows functions activated by
mouse hover, such as the jump lists in the Start Menu as well as the
All Programs menu.

Taz0

October 22, 2009 at 2:29pm

Windows 7 comes with WMP12, and with it brings native support for DivX/XviD (MPEG4) and hardware accelerated H.264 video. Unfortunately, the MPEG4 support is kind of spotty resulting in some videos playing the audio only, and hardware acceleration doesn't work for all H.264 content, causing high CPU usage when the codec falls back to software decoding.

Installing the XviD or CoreAVC codecs doesn't solve the problem - WMP12 changed its codec policy, and now it always prefers its built-in codecs over any other codecs you install (even ignoring merit levels). The web is littered with registry hacks to force certain codecs, none of which worked for me.

Upon further research, I came across a program that did work for me, and included a convenient user interface which gave the ability to choose between a default Microsoft codec and other codecs installed on your system. It's called "Windows 7 DirectShow Filter Tweaker" and is currently at version 1.9. Download it here: http://www.codecguide.com/windows7_preferred_filter_tweaker.htm.

DoctorX

October 22, 2009 at 1:12pm

there was some issues with the networking that was able to be fixed by using a vista tweak of all things.  Here is the link and text: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/showthread.php?t=8870.  Doubled my throughput to my WHS

 

This is for vista but most should work for windows 7

To open the Command Prompt Window:

Click start, Click All Programs, scroll to Accessories and Click to open Accessories.

Find the Command Prompt and right click it, and left click "Run as Administrator"
As small window will open, click Continue, and a black window will open. The Command Prompt Window.

Into the Black Window, enter:

netsh int tcp show global Return

This will display a list similar to the one below; this is how they
should look if all is correct. You need to check your list against this
and note which items are not correct.

TCP Global Parameters
----------------------------------------------
Receive-Side Scaling State………….: enabled
Chimney Offload State…………………: enabled
Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level….: normal
Add-On Congestion Control Provider..: ctcp
ECN Capability………………………………: enabled
RFC 1323 Timestamps………………….: disabled

Is Explicit Congestion Notification enable on your system

Next you need to run a test to see if your system supports ECN
(Explicit Congestion Notification) some system support it other do not.
To run the test go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/usi...d/default.mspx
and follow the instructions. You are looking for the result of the ECN
test that is under "Traffic Congestion Test". If it is supported you
can enable it.

Now to tweak your Vista.

Receive-Side Scaling State needs to be enabled.

The command is:

netsh int tcp set global rss=enabled Return

Chimney Offload State needs to be enabled

The command is:

netsh int tcp set global chimney=enabled Return

Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level needs to be normal

The command is:

netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal Return

Add-On Congestion Control Provider needs to be set to ctcp
This may not appear to be in your list. If you do not think the
Congestion Control Provider is on yourlist enter the command and it
will appear.

The command is:

netsh interface tcp set global congestionprovider=ctcp Return

You should only enable ECN Capability if the Microsoft test said it could be enabled on your system.

The command is:

netsh int tcp set global ecncapability=enabled Return

Now do another

netsh int tcp show global Return

Finally, check if has all taken. Your list should look like the one below.

TCP Global Parameters
----------------------------------------------
Receive-Side Scaling State………….: enabled
Chimney Offload State…………………: enabled
Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level….: normal
Add-On Congestion Control Provider..: ctcp
ECN Capability………………………………: enabled
RFC 1323 Timestamps………………….: disabled